Should I pay off my debt in full or take longer to pay it off while saving simultaneously?

I have credit card debt that I'm trying to pay off. I'm not sure if I should pay it off in full or save simultaneously. I estimate it will take me around 10 months to pay off the debt if I save simultaneously, but I'm not sure what's the better option.

Answers |4

As a mortgage professional, I would ask if you have a home equity line of credit on your home. If so, I would then ask what the interest rate is that you are paying on the credit card, against the interest rate on your home eqity becasue it might just 'payoff' to pay the cc balance in full with your home equity.

Ashley - You're welcome. 23.99% is definitely high. I am not a financial adviser but if I were to provide just my 'opinion', I would recommend doing a little housekeeping on your employment. As long as that's secure and you know that you'll have a stream of guaranteed income, it may be best to pay off the debt. If you have no savings at all, perhaps put a little away for savings instead of it all going towards the debt. Good luck.

Ashley,I see your follow up question was not addressed. You stated that your APR is 23.99% and your original question asked if you should pay off the debt in full or save at the same time.

With an APR at 23.99% you should put ALL of your energy into paying off the debt. If you have $10,000 in debt at 23.99% interest rate this means you are generating an additional $2,399 in debt/interest each year. Said differently, this would require you to earn 24% or more on your investments each year in order to make “saving simultaneously” financially advantageous.

I think you know without me mentioning this… but it’s virtually impossible to earn 24% or more each year in order to make saving an option for you.

I hope this helps. I would be happy to answer any follow up questions you may have regarding paying off your debts. Brad Creger

Hi Ashley, Based on the fact that your estimated time to payoff your credit card debt is only 10 months while still having the capacity to save money, what would it be if you concentrated your effort to just paying off. How much more would you save if the remaining months left before the 10 month window if you took all of the normal payments that you made to the credit cards? Which ever option allows you to save more... then you should go with that.